TCM TiVo ALERT
For
November 1 – November 7
DAVID’S BEST BETS:
WUTHERING HEIGHTS (November 3, 8:00 pm): It's always challenging
to adapt a classic book into a movie, and this 1939 film uses less than half of
Emily Bronte's 34 chapters (eliminating the second generation of characters) in
the book. But it's still a stunning film directed by one of the true masters,
William Wyler. Laurence Olivier gives an unforgettable performance as
Heathcliff, showing a wide range of emotions in a complicated role. Heathcliff
is bitter, vengeful, conflicted and passionately in love. I doubt anyone else could
do justice to the role. Merle Oberon as Cathy is also wonderful as are many
members of the cast including David Niven, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Hugh
Williams.
JUDGMENT AT
NUREMBERG (November 3, 3:00 pm):
Sit down and get comfortable before watching this three-hour film. A huge
ensemble cast of brilliant actors - Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Montgomery
Clift, Richard Widmark and Maximilian Schell - and memorable small roles played
by Judy Garland and Marlene Dietrich make this drama one of the most riveting
films made. It also makes you question the responsibility of people who commit
atrocities or do nothing to stop them. The movie is a post-World War II
military tribunal in which three American judges (Tracy as the chief judge in
an extraordinary role) are hearing the cases of four former German judges
(Lancaster is the main ex-jurist) accused of committing war atrocities for
passing death sentences on people during the Nazi regime. The film is
horrifying, hard-hitting, and pulls no punches, including showing real footage
of hundreds of dead bodies found by American soldiers at the end of the war.
You have to decide for yourself if being German during the regime of Adolf
Hitler is a war crime.
ED’S BEST BETS:
INTERNAL AFFAIRS (November 1, 1:30 am): Stop me if you’ve
heard this one before. An undercover cop (Tony Leung) has infiltrated a
criminal gang. Meanwhile the gang has placed a mole (Andy Lau) in the ranks of
the police force. As both bosses become aware of a spy in their midst, it becomes
a race against time to discover who is what before the other side is able. Yes,
it’s the plot for Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. Well, this is the
film he lifted it from for his Oscar-winning tale. I’ve seen both and this is
far and away the better version: No Jack Nicholson hamming up the screen for
one thing. And if you’re expecting the usual non-stop action film, prepare for
a change, for character is emphasized over action. In fact, The
Departed is a very faithful adaptation. Watching both it seems that
only the locale has changed. This is the sort of film that will resonate with
you long after you’ve seen it.
THE SAINT IN NEW YORK (November 3, 12:00 pm): The Saint, a sort
of mysterious Robin Hood created by famed mystery writer Leslie Charteris, has
been translated into all three major mediums: film, radio, and television. This
is the first of the Saint movies, and in my opinion, the best. It’s also the
least known, due to the fact it’s almost never shown on television. In this
outing, Louis Heyward plays Simon Templar and never since has Templar been
played with such smooth rakishness as that with which Heyward plays him. It’s
just plain, good, old-fashioned fun as Templar makes baboons of the bad guys
and earns the love of the boss’s moll. Try it and see if you don’t agree about
Heyward as Templar.
WE DISAGREE ON . .
. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (November 2, 11:45 am)
ED: B. Yeah, yeah, I know. I agree that the film
hasn’t exactly aged well, but it’s still entertaining and the performances
still solid. We can see the Lancaster-Kerr romance coming a mile away but that
doesn’t deter our enjoyment. Pressure from the Army dictated a change for the
worse in two important plot points: for one, the Borgnine-Sinatra fracas is now
shown to be the result of Borgnine’s sadistic streak and not coming from Army
policy, as Jones indicates in his novel. Secondly, in the novel, the cowardly
Captain Holmes is promoted to major while in the film he’s given a choice of
resignation or court-martial. Director Fred Zinneman could live with the first,
noting that it actually helped Sinatra’s character better to die in the arms of
his buddy Montgomery Clift, but the second change Zimmerman saw as reducing the
film to the level of a recruiting poster. No matter, for it’s a great
combination of character and action, with some soap added for extra enjoyment.
And it’s always good to see Lancaster in action.
DAVID: C-. The cast is loaded with talented actors -
including two of my favorites, Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift - and
the plot seems like a can't-miss about Army soldiers in Hawaii in the weeks
leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The biggest problem with the
film is it's just too much. There are too many storylines, there are too many
subplots, and there are too many characters. There are films with large
ensemble casts of big stars (such as Best Bet Judgment at Nuremberg)
that work. The ones that work are better focused films. This one simply doesn't
work. After a while, you cut your losses and pay attention to a few of the
characters and storylines. While Lancaster was a great actor, and is solid in
this film, the love affair with Deborah Kerr is dull. I was extremely
disappointed the first time I saw the iconic romance scene on the beach with
the waves rushing over them as they kiss in the sand. My immediate thought was,
"That's it?" Turns it, yeah, that's it. As Ed mentioned, it hasn't
aged well at all. It's predictable, even if you don't including the Pearl
Harbor attack. Also, the characters are largely stereotypes of guys you'd
expect in the Army: the strong silent type (Lancaster), the cruel officer
(Philip Ober), the slob bully (Ernest Borgnine), the sensitive guy with demons
in his past (Clift), etc.
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